12 Open-source free Agile and SCRUM project management solutions
What is Agile project management?
Agile project management is a project management approach that values and prioritizes human communication and feedback to deliver a quality product.
The project is done in sprints, each sprint is aiming to improve the workflow and productivity by learning from the previous step (sprint).
Companies, especially IT and software development companies adapted agile software development routines which proven to deliver faster and improve customer satisfaction.
Agile development is not limited to software development, many companies in different sectors like industrial and healthcare use different agile mythologies and frameworks for project management and large-scale production management.
Agile examples
- SCRUM (An agile framework for developing and sustaining a complex product)
- Feature Driven Development (FDD)
- Adaptive Software Development (ASD)
- Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)
- Lead Software Development (LSD)
- eXtreme Programming (XP)
While agile term and mythologies are trending in project management, dozens of solutions and software packages are released to help companies utilize agile methodologies in automated fashion.
If you are looking for a project management tools the classical way with Agile/ Scrum options you may read our list here: Top 14 FREE and Open-Source Project Management Systems.
Here in this list, we collected a useful set of open-source agile project management solutions. We aim to provide multiple options for companies looking to migrate to open-source technologies.
Benefits of using open-source solutions
- Free (Libre)
- Self-hosted
- No data-lock (vendor lock-in)
- Extensible with custom development
- Community support
- Avoid massive cost of cloud-based commercial agile managers
Open-source Agile Project Management Solutions
1- ]ProjectOpen[
ProjectOpen is our top pick here because it is built for enterprise and offers multiple agile methodologies and tools. Since it was released back in 2003, ProjectOpen evolved to be the first choice for companies in healthcare, legal, finance and industrial sectors.
ProjectOpen is created by Frank Bergmann a German entrepreneur more than 20 years ago. It is a full-featured enterprise project management solution for large projects.
Unlike most tools on this list which primarily focuses on software development, ProjectOpen is used heavily in industrial sector especially because it offers multiple agile methods project management tools and.
2- IceScrum
IceScrum is a free open-source agile project management tools for enterprise. It aims for minimal configuration multi-tool system for software companies.
It features visualization tools, timeline management, backlog manager and allows managers to monitor key indicators of success.
IceScrum supports integration of dozens of 3rd-party apps like GitHub, JIRA, Slack, and more.
3- Taiga
Taiga is an open-source enterprise agile project management that utilize Scrum and Kanban frameworks. It is built with Python using Django Framework and uses AngularJS for frontend.
Taiga comes with built-in project progress monitoring, backlog manager, estimation and prediction tools, timeline manager, built-in issues and bug tracker and customizable dashboards with rich reporting blocks.
That is not all, Taiga supports multiple teams, multiple languages, and it is highly customizable as for the frontend and on the data level with custom tags and fields creation on the fly.
4- OrangeScrum
OrangeScrum is an open-source enterprise project management for teams. You might have guessed from the name it is a Scrum-based project management tool, but that is not quite right as the system features dozens of other different tools as well.
In-addition to its Scrum management features, OrangeScrum features advanced resources' management, time management tools like schedule and time tracking managers, custom workflow management and informative rich dashboards.
OrangeScrum comes with rich notification and reminder functions that include in-app notification, weekly email reporting and 3rd-party notification support.
5- Tuleap
Tuleap is an agile software management software package for building complex software solutions that require multiple teams.
It comes with a large set of integration options for 3rd-party services for developers like GitHub, Gitlap, ERP systems and messaging solutions like Slack.
Tuleap features agile project development, continuous development, issue tracking, bug management, test management, project documents management and requirements management.
The system is rich in graphs and charts that helps developers and project managers to track the project's progress. It has a built-in Kanban board which boosts productivity to the next-level and customizable dashboards.
6- Zentao
Zentao is a simple yet efficient agile project management tools that works for small and large teams. It is the first solution on this list to have two mobile apps (iOS and Android).
Zentao features product development manager, a spring manager, feedback tools, Kanban boards, document management, task management and story-based tasks.
Zentao is a self-hosted web-based system built with PHP. It is a lightweight full-featured solution for small and medium-sized software development agencies.
7- Kanboard
Kanboard is a free and open-source self-hosted Kanban project management. It is easy to setup on any private cloud or hosting and easier to use.
Kanboard organizes everything in boards with a vertical customizable Kanban layout which comes with advanced search and filtering options. It supports multiple authentication backends which makes it a perfect options for companies that have IDM "Identity and Access Management" systems.
The most amazing feature Kanboard has is it is translated to more than 30 languages.
8-Parabol
Parabol is not a project management tools like others in this list, It is a custom-built meeting app for agile teams. You may consider it a communication platform for agile users which boosts their productivity and limits communication-based errors.
It comes with built-in an advanced commenting system, responsive design and multiple authentication support.
Parabol has an integration-ready set for GitHub, Slack and Atlassian Jira.
9- Lavagna
Lavagna is an agile project management system for small teams. It is a lightweight with limited software and hardware requirement.
It features Kanban boards manager, tasks search, issues and bugs tracker, multi-projects support and multiple login providers (Google, Twitter, LDAP, GitLab). Moreover, it supports OAuth login and grained access control.
Lavagna is an ideal solution for small teams which work in large enterprise because of its capabilities to integrate with enterprise IDM systems.
10- Scrumex
Scrumex is a free open-source project for agile teams that use Scrum. It allows project managers to collaborate on productive workflow to boost the product release in timely manner.
Scrumex is based on an unusual technology stack as it uses Erlang, Elixir, Phoenix, React/ Redux and PostgreSQL database.
11- Wekan
You probably have heard or used Trello. So if you are a fan of it and looking for an open-source alternative then Wekan is your answer.
Wekan is very similar to Trello in every way except of course it is completely free and open-source which users can download and install it on their systems.
Hamza Mu
12- ScrumDo
ScrumDo is an old yet still kicking scrum and story-based project management tools for teams. It may be the first open-source Scrum tool there is. It comes with a rich graphical dashboard with charts that monitor the project's progress, backlog manager, story-based task manager, and an RSS feed system that is we rarely see nowadays.
Even though the developer didn't it for years, some users are still using it till this day.
Desoky Mo
Conclusion
Investing so much on cloud paid project management and enterprise solution is not always a wise choice especially when there are many open-source alternatives to choose from. In this list we collected the best community-packed free agile project management packages for small and medium business to enterprise. We hope it will help decision makers to decide what fits their work and achieve more productivity.
If you have any other open-source agile project management package that we didn't mention here, we would love to hear about in the comments below.
